songs of experience

I just returned from the USCAA National Corporate Cup Relays where I competed for Dave’s company, AT&T, in the “wife” category. You can run for a given company as an employee, a retiree, an alum, or - new this year - as a spouse. Because of an elaborate scoring system, and a labyrinthian age/sex classification method of handicapping, my 45 year-old female self was a bonafide ringer in this competition. heh heh.

On the first day, I ran the 400 leg of a DMR that had to have at least one woman, and someone over 40 - ME, on both counts. My earnest 63.8 second quarter didn’t really HELP us … but it didn’t hurt us either (which was the point of burying me on that leg). AT&T placed 3rd and we got to shake hands with celebrity presenter, Steve Scott, on the awards’ stand. Next up was a mile in some crazy distance relay, called the Pyramid Relay, with 5 people … mile, 800, 800, mile, 2-mile (?) … I think that’s the order. The best part of this race was that Dave and I were on the same team. I loved hearing my husband’s encouragement as I was struggling to hang on to a hard pace:

On day two, Dave and I both ran the 10k road race which is scored like a cross-country meet - lowest score wins. My first place in the 45 age group (thus, scoring just one point) packed as much punch as the #1 finisher overall. It’s actually harder to do well if you are young and fast. heh heh, again. 70+ year-old Ironman Roger is AT&T’s ringer on the roads. I loved being out there cruising around the reservoir early in the morning with just a few die-hard spectators … teammates offering support, between sips of coffee … knowing each of our efforts mattered more than our finish in the pecking order. I loved knowing the dance wasn’t dependent on the audience. AT&T needed my 1 point and I was happy to do my part.

“Did the dance stop because there were no witnesses?
No, the dance wasn’t dependent on an audience;
it had to be performed, not because of acclaim, but because of need.”

from 37 Days<